


Counting Up To Five

by flecksofpoppy



Category: Darker Than Black
Genre: Character Study, Friendship, Gen, Gen Work, Triple Drabble, Yuletide 2013 Treat, Yuletide Madness 2013
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-05 19:05:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1097546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flecksofpoppy/pseuds/flecksofpoppy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>"You tried to run away on your own? Why?"</i> </p><p>
  <i>"I thought... my heart would move."</i>
</p><p> -  Yin, in response to Hei, in "A Heart Unswaying On The Water's Surface," Episode 14</p>
            </blockquote>





	Counting Up To Five

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Amazing_E_ko](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amazing_E_ko/gifts).



> Written for Yuletide Madness 2013. Prompt from Dear Yuletide Writer letter: _Yin on her own is great too - I do love her friendship with Kiko, and how cute is it that she gets into anime? Character development for her would be much appreciated, whatever the form._

There are many objects that surround you.

Close objects are: tobacco, metal, water, walls. 

Distant objects are: everything that isn’t close.

Nearby objects create new objects that are distant.

You find a music box one day; it has a handle, so you turn it. You’re not sure why – you don’t even ask why.

The metal emits a tinkling sound that sounds like the drip of water. Water, you’re familiar with, but this strange arrangement of notes – it’s more like stars, shaken across the sky as these sounds are across the air.

You keep it. You wind it and you listen.

= = =

Water cracks your fingers, but gives you eyes.

You could describe what it looks like to Huang, Hei or Mao, if they asked. You could say how the glimmer of light on the unwavering water’s surface looks like stars. 

You could say: melodies look like stars, sight feels like flesh cracking.

The observer spirits never speak, but they listen and look.

You describe events by “yes” and “no” in answers to questions. Words themselves are nothing that you can describe; unlike stars, sounds, or smells.

But you could describe some of it, maybe, if they asked.

The stars are shifting.

= = =

You watch Kiko talk. You watch her mouth move, you watch her pink hair swing. You try to hear, to listen. Listening is as much a skill as the ability to let the light into your pupils.

Yin, do you want coffee or tea?

You watch Kiko talk. You listen to Kiko talk.

“Do you want coffee or tea?”

You listen to Kiko talk. You think of taste.

“Yes.”

You listen. You smell, you remember taste.

Your mother always made fragrant Jasmine tea in the morning, and you hear a tinkling of melody in your head.

“Tea.”

Your mouth bends.


End file.
